David Tudor had little patience with commercial analog synthesizers, which he felt required a lot of work to produce decent
sound. After considerable effort he discovered that by combining gain
stages, phase shifting, and feedback, he could produce complex patterns
of modulation and sounds that held a hint of vocal identity. He used this
approach for a series of pieces he made in the early 1970s, culminating
in Untitled and Toneburst. In John Fulleman's words,
these works "were based on his ability to assert just enough control
over the equipment to get through a concert."

Tudor's notation for Untitled
reveals that "formant shifting" is central to the electronic
network. Formant shifting is accomplished by passing a signal through
high pass and low pass filters and multiplying those outputs together.
The filters create a resonant frequency, establishing the pitch at which
feedback forms. But the multiplication transposes sounds at that resonant
frequency to zero hertz, canceling out the feedback.

In concept, Untitled required close
to sixty components, too many for a live performance. So Tudor prepared
source tapes of material to be played at random within the overall performance.
The piece was composed in 1972 for a concert tour where it was performed
concurrently with John Cage shouting out his Mesostics Re: Merce Cunningham.
Cassette recordings of one of these concerts reveal Cage's voice
just breaking the surface of Tudor's wall of sound. Later, Cage commented
that while he was quite fond of the piece he would never perform it again,
as it had left him hoarse for a month.

A Book of Music, Two
Prepared Pianos(1944), John
Cage

Part One
Part
Two

Ms. Ray and Mr. Rosenboom, two prepared pianos

This relatively obscure and rarely heard
work was written in 1944 for Robert Fitzdale and Arthur Gold.

The compositional method involves a kind
of modular construction, in that phases are used, reused, recombined, and
altered by means of shifting accents and rhythmic groupings, augmentation
and diminution of patterns, and punctuating chords. In some cases patterns
are repeated while the note durations are gradually shortened so that
the patterns become faster and faster. Rhythmic and repeated-note groups
are combined and sometimes set against each other using ratios from the
number set {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7}.

A limited set of twenty-three pitches is
used, spread over four octaves with the closest intervals tending to cluster
together in the midrange of the pianos. The pitches are "prepared"
according to Cage's detailed instructions. "Mutes of various
materials are placed between the strings of the keys used, thus effecting
transformations of the piano sounds with respect to all of their characteristics."
The placement of these "mutes" is carefully specified in the
score so as to produce timbral alterations, often by highlighting or damping
various overtones in the piano strings.

The composition has two major movements,
each with several subparts. There are four such subsections in Part
One, which begins at a medium tempo, speeds up, then slows back down.
Part Two is faster and more elaborate. It begins and ends with
two sets of two duet sections in between which five shorter solo interludes
are interposed. These interludes seem to play off each other like calls
and responses, and begin with slower and more pensive parts for Piano
II, to which Piano I responds with faster and more percussive, punctuating
material.

The speeds or tempi of the piece cover a
wide range; from very slow to lightning fast passages that sweep by like
extended timbral wind. Finally, a slow gesture ends the piece, reminding
us of earlier material in a kind of thoughtful coda.

Nature Pieces for Piano
I, II, III, IV, and V(1951),
Morton Feldman

Ms. Ray, piano

This piece, from 1951, is an example of Feldman's
early work. It consists of five distinct captivating movements, all seemingly
characterized by a strong, well-articulated image, though we are left
to our own imaginations to construct this image.

Movement I includes slow, soft waves
in pitch contour, starting low, building higher, and then moving back
down again, sometimes overlapping, sometimes long, sometimes short. These
are set in 5/4 time with regular motion. As the movement progresses, silences
interposed between the waves grow longer and the patterns dissolve into
just one or two notes. Movement II is set in 4/4 time and is made
up almost entirely of long sustained chords or octaves, beginning softly
and becoming quite loud at the end. The entrances of the chords are offset
by grace notes to keep them from clearly landing on regular beats. Movement
III is in 5/8 time and includes more pointillist material. Eighth-note
patterns with long interval skips are played in a wide range of dynamics.
Sometimes the patterns are repeated several times. In the midst of this,
chords reminiscent of Movement II return and eventually end the
movement. At one point, the meter changes to 5/4 and the dynamic of ppppp,
pianississississimo is indicated on the score. Movement IV,
in 3/8 time, is characterized by short, descending sixteenth-note gestures
that cascade into sustained sounds, usually emphasizing the perfect-fifth
interval of the notes D and A. Short, repeated figures follow and end
this relatively brief movement. Movement V, the last in the set,
makes one speculate that Feldman may have been paying homage to the second
movement of Anton Webern's well-known Opus 27, Variations for
Piano. A series of two-event figures with widely spaced pitches separated
by short rests echoes Webern's formulation. However, unlike Webern,
Feldman's formulation includes a number of repeated elements that
are heard in an engaging rhythmic structure.

Helix 5 [for variable
sound producing means] (1964),
Jerry Hunt

Mr. Rosenboom, piano and auxiliary sound
making devices

Most of Jerry Hunt's work centered on
his own performance persona, an idiosyncratic combination of shaman, huckster,
and musician best captured in Gordon Monahan's neologism, "Texercist."
In the early 1960s, Hunt sent Helix 5 to David Tudor together with
a proposal that he move to Stony Point in order to serve as a kind of
apprentice to both Tudor and Cage. The apprenticeship never worked out.
In later years, Tudor regarded this as a missed opportunity, as he had
high regard for Hunt's work, which he described as "completely
inscrutable."

David Rosenboom, who prepared the evening's
realization, commented: "This performance is based on the written
score and on information I gleaned from David Tudor, with whom I attended
many of Hunt's performances. Through numerous interactions with Jerry,
I learned how to decode his extremely complex instructions and detailed
graphics. Though the score is for 'variable sound producing means'
Hunt refers to the piano in the instructions. So I use the piano as a
centerpiece and also incorporate numerous additional sound sources."

La Monte Young began making "event"
scores in 1960. The last such piece, a realization of Fluxus artist Henry
Flynt's "Work Such That No One Knows What Is Going On,"
dates from February 1962. Flynt, in an article on Young in this period,
says, "Young's tireless efforts as an impresario brought about
what amounted to a new artistic schoola school that included Cage
and his associates as composer emeritus." As a participant, Flynt
"felt challenged by the can-you-top-this competitiveness that focused
on ideas," which would generate "perverse unfamiliarity and
inexplicability (relative to one or another fine art) that served as the
gesture's launch pad."

In Tudor's realization of John Cage's
4'33", he opened and then shut the keyboard cover to articulate
the piece's three sections. In a teasing homage to it, Young asks
Tudor to open and close the keyboard cover of a piano until he succeeds
in doing so without making any audible sound or until he gets tired of
trying.